Presque Isle man to serve 7½ years for ordering oxycodone from Mexico

BANGOR, Maine — An Aroostook County man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 7½ years in federal prison for ordering 3,800 oxycodone pills from pharmacies in Mexico over the Internet, having them shipped to him and selling them to others.

Michael Folsom, 34, of Presque Isle also was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to undergo treatment for his addiction to opiates.

Folsom told U.S. District Judge John Woodcock shortly before being sentenced that he was scheduled to enter a drug treatment center 10 days after his arrest on June 7, 2011.

“I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done and the lives that I’ve affected,” Folsom told Woodcock shortly before the sentence was imposed. “I want to try to become a better person.”

The Presque Isle man said he was using 10 to 15 oxycodone pills a day by injection.

“If I had kept doing it, I would not be standing here today,” Folsom said. “I have two nephews who looked up to me. I don’t want them to be in the place I was in.”

Folsom waived indictment and pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribute oxycodone. He has been jailed since his arrest in June.

He faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. Under the prevailing federal sentencing guidelines, he faced between 10 and 12½ years in prison, in part because of his criminal history, Woodcock said.

Folsom has convictions in state court on three operating after suspension charges, two drug trafficking charges and three assault charges, the judge said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey recommended that Folsom serve eight years in prison because the day he was arrested, the defendant confessed his role in the conspiracy and took responsibility for his crime.

“That’s the kind of extraordinary acceptance of responsibility that warrants a reduction [in the sentence] in this case,” Casey told Woodcock.

Defense attorney Richard Hartley of Bangor urged that Woodcock impose a lesser sentence than the one Casey recommended but did not specify the number of years his client should spend behind bars.

The investigation that led to Folsom’s arrest was conducted by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Casey said.